Missouri high schooler stumps for awareness about depression

KIRKWOOD, Mo. -- Twice having tried to take his own life, Jake Novak believes he has beaten back his depression. His quest now is to help his Kirkwood High School peers do the same.

With his principal among his fans, the 18-year-old senior has made a cause of his Students Working Against Depression, a group bent on encouraging schoolmates to confront the illness and know there's effective treatment -- and sympathetic ears.

"I've been told where to go if I've got HIV and AIDS, but no one ever told me where to go if I got depression. And that's a lot more common in high school than AIDS or HIV," said Novak, brainchild of the awareness group founded after a popular schoolmate's suicide in 2001.

"Students were very happy to see something like this," Novak said of SWAD.

His proof: the group that initially drew 11 students has more than tripled 15 months later at a school where 68 percent of about 1,300 respondents to a SWAD questionnaire early last year said they thought they were depressed or had been diagnosed.

One day this month, Novak orchestrated an in-school conference about adolescent depression, landing as the star speaker Wendy Williams, a former world-class diver on her own crusade to destigmatize depression that once had her in its dark grip.

The daylong event drew 100 people, including teachers and students from nearby schools.

"Jake's certainly an inspiration for me," said Williams, a St. Louis-area native who won Olympic bronze in platform diving in 1988 before a spinal injury forced her retirement four years later. "The more people are talking about it and telling their story, the more they're healing themselves."

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression afflicts nearly 6 percent of U.S. children ages 9 to 17. Seven percent of severely depressed teens commit suicide. Of nearly 3 million Americans ages 12 to 17 who considered ending their lives in 2000, more than one-third actually tried to kill themselves, a government survey released last July found.

As Novak knows, half the battle is simply realizing you're depressed, even if common warning signs -- irritability, poor sleep, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and withdrawal -- aren't strikingly clear.

After two suicide attemps, Novak considers himself in a better place.

"I can't tell you from a doctor's standpoint if I'm completely over depression," he said. "But I always have friends and family to fall back on."

On the Net:

Families for Depression Awareness: www.familyaware.org

National Institute of Mental Health: www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depression.cfm

National Mental Health Association: www.nmha.org

American Psychiatric Association: www.psych.org